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Maybe It Is The ‘Failing’ NRA.

Until yesterday, I took all the prognostications about
the demise of the NRA with several
grains of salt. Believe me, as a Patriot Life Benefactor member, I know better
than anyone who reads this column about the organization’s current
woes – revenue shortfalls, staff layoffs, investigations into the
Russian connection, loss of commercial partnerships – that made 2018 a pretty
tough year. But I also thought that many of those problems were being overblown
by the liberal media which would like nothing better than to see America’s
‘first civil rights organization’ go right down the tubes.

An email I received from the boys in Fairfax, however,
may actually prove that the prophets of NRA
doom will turn out to be correct. Because the email linked to a new video on
the NRA-TV channel which, if nothing
else, indicates that the organization’s attempts to renew its strength are, to
all intents and purposes, either dying or dead.

The video is a 30-second fundraising effort by the
chief NRA-TV clown, Grant
Stinchfield, warning the
faithful that Hillary Clinton may run for President again. And the
proof that ‘crooked Hillary’ is considering yet another attempt at the brass
ring was a comment from a CNN
noisemaker, Jeff Zeleny, that Hillary ‘told’ a couple of her friends that the
indictment of Roger Stone would prove that Trump’s victory was a sham, and
since she won the popular vote, why not try again?

Now the fact that Hillary and Bill couldn’t get their
national tour off a dime; the fact that there are now at least three formidable
women (Harris, Warren, Gillibrand) out there raising money for their 2020
campaigns; the fact that Hillary has about a good chance of being elected
dog-catcher after the way she screwed up the 2016 campaign; oh well, oh well,
oh well. But here’s the bottom line: the dopes who run the NRA marketing effort can’t come up with anything better to bolster
their image than yet another riff on the ‘crooked Hillary’ line. Which is
exactly what the NRA-TV email subject
line read: “Crooked Hillary Hints at a Third Run for the White House.”

Have the boys in Fairfax heard of H. R. 8? It happens to be a piece of legislation introduced
two days after the 116th Congress was convened which has already
gained enough co-sponsors – 229 – to move towards committee hearings and then
to a certain majority vote. If you want to see the NRA’s official position on H.R. 8, just go to the NRA-ILA website where you’ll find this description
of the bill: “Would make it a crime, subject to certain exceptions, to simply hand a
firearm to another person. Anytime gun owners carry out this simple act, they
would potentially be exposing themselves to criminal penalties.”

Now
of course this statement is a typical piece of pro-gun hyperbole, taking some
language from the legislation and twisting it beyond repair, but at least the
editorial staff which creates content for the NRA-ILA website is keeping their collective eyes on the ball. This
is certainly not what’s going on when we look at NRA-TV. How can you compare
the potential threat to gun-owning ‘rights’ of the resurrection of ‘crooked
Hillary’ to a major piece of gun-control legislation that will float through
the House and may even have a chance of Senate approval if Trump’s 2020
political fortunes continue to fade?

The
fact that the NRA continues to invoke
the Clinton bugaboo when everyone else has forgotten that she exists, tells me
that things at the home office in Fairfax are becoming unglued. Does Wayne-o
really believe that I’m going to increase my annual endowment gift because I’m worried
that Hillary might run?

A long time ago there was a company called GE. They employed a guy named Ronald Reagan to hawk household appliances on television, and now that company doesn’t exist. That’s exactly what’s going to happen to the NRA if they don’t come up with some better messaging about why gun-nuts like me love our guns.

3 thoughts on “Maybe It Is The ‘Failing’ NRA.”

And this is why I won’t waste my dead presidents on the NRA. The leadership is vapid and based on the organization’s rules and by-laws, even if I was a member I could not run for a board seat.

I had a similar problem with the League of American Bicyclists about a decade ago. Several of us, all longtime members in good standing (and I have pretty damn impressive credentials in bicycling, including President of a state bicycling org in Hawaii, a state bike board in New Mexico, and several government advisory posts) tried to run for board seats on a “reform” platform. The existing board made damn sure that effort was impossible by manipulating rules and by-laws to prevent us from even knowing how to contact members. Even with those hurdles, we almost got enough votes to contest the election. Almost doesn’t count.

So one is left with supporting the party line or taking one’s business elsewhere. By the way, I long ago patched things up with the League of American Bicyclists.

The NRA’s mission for 30 years + has been high salares for the top brass by promoting donations and memberships via outlandish scare tactics. They’re probably the most profitable non-profit in history. I doubt they give a fig about gun “rights”, gun ownership or lawful shooting activities.